Thursday, February 28, 2008

The Pretty Ugly Spotlight: B*tch is The New Black




it is blatant who tina fey supports as the presidential democratic nominee...but i am a bit put off by her approach. first things first, i am disturbed by the phrase "bitch is the new black." not because i don't understand the usual intention of the phrase...being that to suggest that *blank* is super popular and practically a staple at this point....like the "little black dress." i've heard it before regarding other colors, "pink is the new black" or whatever color seems to be the hottest at the time. or in other arenas of comparison like "30 is the new 20." ok, i get that.

and you can call me conventional if you want, but i do not feel that the word "b*tch" is an appropriate reference, even in the jovial sense, regarding something as arduous and pressing as the presidential nomination race or its nominees. i say this because some people do not know when enough is enough when joking. you start calling her "b*tch" in a public forum and saying its empowering, then what might someone call obama or mccain and try to justify it by a weak line of "i'm just joking!" or "i didn't mean it like that." (hence the entire n-word debate) aside from this, what i do not get is the implied suggestion of race in this clip of "b*tch is the new black." moreso by the blond than tina fey, her hand/arm gestures seemed contrived and suggestive of quote/unquote blackness....like all she had to do was cross a couple of fingers and she would have been screaming "westsiiiiiiiiiiide!!!!"

in that regard "black" stopped being a color about a dress or any other popular garment or accessory and it became about skin color...and who might that be a quick, slick shot at? hmmmmm, let's see....possible the only black candidate ever to give a white candidate (a woman no less) a run for her money, especially after it was assumed she would bury him after the super tuesday contests.

again, the race jab was cleverly and quickly inserted into someone's diatribe about why mrs. clinton is the right candidate. i have no qualms about those who choose to support mrs. clinton, but i do wonder why the low-blows and desparate attacks on things such as race, gender, religion and schoolyard tactics like whining about pillows, plagiarism, question order and of course tears are being used as a way to justify her race (or presumed self-entitlement)<<< ok, that was a jab-lol!

what do you think?

p.s. just so you know, "the pretty ugly spotlight" is the opposite of "the pretty spotlight" in that it does not shine on pretty things, but is a light shone on foolishness. "the pretty spotlight" is the opposite.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

I absolutely love what you have going on here makes me feel right at home!!! Please keep up the great work and dont be afraid to stop by go ahead and add me to your blogroll!!!

Habitual Beauty said...

oh i cant leave keep it up!!!

PCD (Pretty Circle Drawer) said...

@ ilea, thank you so much. you are most welcome here in the circle...i tried to get to your page and it gave me a message saying your profile isn't public. post your blogspot addy so i can enture over!

@ beautyful habit....*smile* i appreciate your presence...always visit cuz i enjoy your page as well! (you killed me with the bey pic yesterday-lol!)

TravelDiva said...

That's interesting. That's an interesting take on the racial aspect of it. I think they were trying to reverse people calling hillary a "b" and make it positive. But the danger in that is that it translates into strong woman, getting stuff done = b*tch. So to me, rather than empowering or taking the heat out of the term, it's giving credence to it.

12kyle said...

1st time on your blog. Very nice

You made some great points. I don't know what's more comical...Hillbilly's futile attempt to save her in this election or Saturday Night Live's futile attempt to be funny. SNL hasn't been funny in years. I watched it once last year and that was only b/c LeBron James was hosting it.

Hillary should just take this loss and sit down. Maybe once Obama leaves office in 8 years, we can get a woman in the White House. Preferably, a sista.

Anonymous said...

*future politician*

Paula D. said...

This entire campaign is *the new black*. Every day I am shaking my head at something. We won't see these type of shenanigans ever again.

HATgirl said...

That comment bothered me alot! It implies the being black, i.e. a black candidate, is just cool and people are voting for Obama because he's cool or it's the cool thing to do, like wearing pink is the color of the season. Compare that to someone who wears pink all the time regardless of what people think or simply love the color pink. Those who wear the new color (think vote based on what is depicted as fashionable) are only doing it because others are and not because believe that Pink represents something in them or because they identify with it somehow. Being black is not a form of music that's hip to listen today and add to your collection of cool music, being black is not a dress which you wear to show off.

Also Fey's comment implies that voting for a black person has been a hip thing to do for so long that it's time for a change. However, Obama is the first black candidate with the serious potential to take the White house (another color reference there). So if we play into that theory that it's cool, why stop the cool thing to do before it even happens.

As you can see I got issues with this.

Mes Deux Cents said...

Hi PCD,

It's one thing when SNL propagates this stuff but it's really unacceptable when corporate media outlets start spewing this crap.

I keep reading and hearing less and less political analysis and more Obama is a rock star stuff.

The media is so inept that rather than focus on the issues they are simply sitting around going on about how popular Barack is or the racial aspects of the race.

quarter-life-crisis said...

When I watched it and heard her make that statement, I thought I was being oversensitive about not liking it.

Its great to know that I am not the only one.

myquarter-life-crisis.blogspot.com